Suspense Crime Sach Ka Dam
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has announced the appointment of MSKA & Associates as the new auditor. According to a release by APSEZ, “The Audit Committee/ Board is pleased to appoint MSKA & Associates (an independent member firm of BDO International, a Top 6 global audit firm,) as APSEZ’s auditor.” The move comes after Adani Ports voted at a board meeting on Saturday to accept the resignation of Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP.
Since May 2017, Deloitte has been APSEZ’s statutory auditor. In July 2022, APSEZ reappointed Deloitte as its statutory auditor for another term of five years. In Deloitte’s recent meeting with APSEZ management and its Audit Committee, which, by policy, is comprised of and chaired by independent directors only (G K Pillai, Prof G Raghuram, P S Jayakumar, and Nirupama Rao), Deloitte indicated a lack of a wider audit role as auditors of other listed Adani portfolio firms.
The Audit Committee was of the view that the grounds advanced by Deloitte for resignation as statutory auditor were not convincing or sufficient to warrant such a move. It was also conveyed that it is not within the remit of APSEZ and its Board to recommend group-wide appointments as other listed Adani portfolio companies are completely independent, with separate boards, executive teams and minority shareholders.
Following this, Deloitte was not willing to continue as APSEZ’s statutory auditor and, therefore, it was agreed to amicably end the client-auditor contractual relationship between APSEZ and Deloitte.
It is important to mention that, in response to a query by the Audit Committee, Deloitte confirmed that they have received all the APSEZ information from the management of the company. The same has been confirmed by Deloitte in their resignation letter dated August 12, 2023 to the company.
The ’Other Matters’ highlighted in the auditor’s resignation are adequately disclosed and addressed in our FY23 financial statements. We are fully confident that these matters will be appropriately resolved in our September ’23 filing.
